Festive comeback for Fleetwood forward McAleny

Fleetwood Town are set to be handed a late Christmas present with star striker Conor McAleny expected to return to the pitch this week.

McAleny, 25, joined Town on a free transfer from Premier League side Everton in the summer but after an electric two-goal start the forward has been hampered by an ankle injury.

The Liverpudlian scored twice to fire Town to a 2-0 win over Rotherham on the opening day of the season but picked up a niggling ankle injury a week later in the 1-0 win at Northampton.

He has made two short-lived comebacks at Portsmouth in September and against Rochdale in October but the ankle injury flared up again just before Town's 2-2 draw at Blackburn Rovers on Halloween.

Though Rosler says he will not rush McAleny back as he is due to be assessed after today's Christmas Day training session to see if he is ready to make the short trip to Oldham for tomorrow's Boxing Day clash.

Rosler is also anticipating Bobby Grant (knee) to return sooner rather than later.

He said: "Both players are on the grass at different stages.

"Conor McAleny had trained with the team, Bobby is on the grass but not in full part of the training.

"Bobby is a little bit further than Conor.

"Conor will also be assessed.

"There is another training session on Christmas and we will assess him after that and see if he is ready to be part of the match day squad or whether he needs another few days training.

we will speak to him and assess him on Christmas."

He added: "I think it would be a big boost, everybody knows what a quality player he is so having him on the team sheet I think that gives everyone a boost and confidence because we have a potential match winner in our team.

"At the moment I do not want to give false hopes, we will assess him tomorrow after training and I think it is important the player himself feels ready and not that we are pushing him.

"He needs to be comfortable in the situation and this is why I have to have dialogue with him too."